Sunday, 13 May 2007

James Floyd Davis was sentenced to death for killing three people during aworkplace shooting more than a decade ago at a Buncombe County tool plant.At least one psychiatrist has concluded that Davis was experiencing paranoiddelusions and believed he was waging a "holy war" against co-workersconspiring against him.

A bill pending before the legislature would allow Davis, 59, who wasdiagnosed in 1973 as schizophrenic, to use his delusions at the time of thekillings to try to have his death sentence overturned.

State Sen. Eleanor Kinnaird, a Carrboro Democrat, has proposed allowingdefendants with severe mental illness to avoid the death penalty if theywere too mentally ill to understand their actions at the time of theircrimes. The defendant could either ask a judge to rule on the issue beforetrial or ask a jury to consider it during the trial's sentencing. Thosealready on death row could file an appeal.

Kinnaird said the bill does not allow these defendants to avoid prosecutionor punishment; they could still be charged and face spending the rest oftheir lives in prison.

But prosecutors oppose the bill, saying the measure is so broad that itcould be applied to all murder defendants facing the death penalty.

"Every time, some hired gun comes in and espouses there's mental illness,"said Buncombe County District Attorney Ron Moore, whose office prosecutedDavis. "We haven't tried anyone capitally in this state without some kind ofdiagnosis."

The bill does not say which diagnoses qualify someone as being severelymentally ill. Rather, the bill defines severe mental illness as someonebeing unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of their conduct, to userational judgment or to conform their conduct to the law. Each side islikely to present competing testimony from mental health experts, and thequestion would be decided by a judge or a jury.

Moore said the jury in Davis' trial considered evidence about his mentalillness and still sentenced him to death. Moore said a psychiatrist recentlyfound Davis competent enough to fire his lawyers and drop his appeals. Hedescribed Davis as "lucid" and "articulate" during recent court hearings.

The rationale behind the bill is similar to successful efforts in recentyears to outlaw the death penalty for juveniles and the mentally retarded: akiller's young age, limited mental functioning and severe mental illnessmake them less culpable for their crimes and not deserving of the deathpenalty.

"By a certain reasoning, people with certain mental illnesses can be heldresponsible, but they aren't the worst of the worst because of the illnessthat they have," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the DeathPenalty Information Center, a nonprofit anti-death penalty group based inWashington.

Mental health advocates agree, saying the bill extends the protectionalready available to those who are mentally retarded to those with severemental illness.

"These people probably have no real understanding of what occurred," saidJulia Leggett, a lobbyist for the Alliance for Disability Advocates.

A few states eyeing it

North Carolina is one of at least three states, including Indiana andWashington, considering such a proposal. Connecticut is the only state thathas such a law.

In a poll earlier this spring, 52 percent of 574 North Carolina voterssurveyed said they would not support the death penalty for those with severemental disability. The poll was released by N.C. Policy Watch, a progressivethink tank, that hired Public Policy Polling to conduct the survey, whichhad a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Last year, the American Bar Association, as well as The American PsychiatricAssociation and the American Psychological Association, passed identicalresolutions about mentally ill defendants and the death penalty. Theresolutions said defendants should not be executed if they had severe mentalillness at the time of the crime or if their illness prevents them fromhelping their lawyers handle their appeals, leads them to give up theirappeals or makes them unable to understand the purpose of their execution.North Carolina's legislation does not go that far.

But at least one of Davis' lawyers hopes the bill could help Davis andothers on death row.

"There is a significant number on death row who are suffering from mentalillness," Asheville lawyer Leah Broker said. "I don't think they got fairtrials, especially in my client's case. It would give another avenue forreview."

She said Davis' trial lawyers didn't present enough evidence about hishistory of mental illness that she believes could have swayed jurors. Davis'appeal based on those issues was filed in 2000 and has never been heard, shesaid.

On May 17, 1995, Davis killed co-workers Gerald Allman, Frank Knox andAnthony Balogh and injured Larry Codgill. Davis had been fired two daysbefore the shooting. Knox's widow, Phyllis Knox, declined to comment aboutthe legislation, although she has previously said she opposes the deathpenalty.